Patent Law

The American Bar Association is urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit not to include the government’s attorney fees when awarding “all expenses of the proceedings” to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Raj Abhyanker is up in arms against legal technology companies he believes are practicing law without a license.

With the growth of online services that assist people filing trademarks and patents, Abhyanker says he has seen his business suffer because “I can’t do what they’re doing, but they can do what I’m doing.”

A complaint filed Tuesday in the Northern District of California alleges LegalZoom has engaged in the “unauthorized practice of law, false advertising, unfair competition and other claims with respect to preparation and filing of trademark applications" before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Season four of the hit HBO series Silicon Valley introduced viewers to Stuart Burke, a man who has accumulated a pretty nice chunk of change engaging in what could best be described as a shakedown of music writers and song publishers through his acquisition of copyrights.